


Walking Through Fire

by toastedmaro



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Adventure, Fairy Tail Week, Happy and Carla are just normal cats, Magic, The gang goes on an adventure, but kind of modern
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:14:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25242217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toastedmaro/pseuds/toastedmaro
Summary: Special Officer Natsu Dragneel had a pretty normal life. He led his own division on super cool missions and lived with his sister, his cat, and his sister’s cat. You know, pretty normal until he found out that he had an older brother, an actual blood sibling. And okay, maybe that part about the leader of Tartaros calling him “E.N.D-sama” was a little weird too.
Kudos: 9





	Walking Through Fire

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this like 4 years ago for Fairy Tail Week on tumblr, but just decided to post it because why not lmao
> 
> the prompt was "where shall we go?"
> 
> of course, something that was supposed to be like 2k words ended up being blown up into a very long story, of which i only wrote the prologue and 2 chapters, and haven't worked on since i was in high school... idk if i will every continue because i actually forgot how to write stories, so this is just posting for fun. I hope someone will like it? maybe??
> 
> anyway, so before i started writing, i did a lot of research about military rankings and stuff, but all of that information is no longer in my head and i have no idea about rank significance anymore so for the story just assume the Natsu and Gray are same rank but Erza is one rank higher, thank you
> 
> ALSO even though it doesn't matter, i forgot why I chose certain dates and year, but one upon a time, it had meaning lol
> 
> hope you enjoy it!

Natsu Dragneel had been experiencing an exceptionally boring early morning the day it all started. The days that followed were filled with bruises and a few gashes here or there, but everything paled in comparison to a rather fateful encounter that led him to Zeref.

That particular morning, January 4th, x797, Natsu had been lounging in his super comfortable spinning chair (he disabled the spinning feature due to his damned motion sickness) behind his large, spotless mahogany corner desk. With his fingers interlocked behind his head, he must have looked pretty relaxed, lazy and not to mention, like he was slacking off when his supervisor slammed open the door to his office, causing him to tense up immediately in his chair, hands whipping from behind his head to form fists on pure instinct.

He relaxed when he saw a shock of long red hair before apprehension and something akin to fear (but the great Natsu Dragneel wasn’t afraid of the woman, psh) washed over him the moment after he decided that this was not some criminal out to kill him. This woman was far more fearful than the most dangerous of criminal at times.

Erza Scarlet stood in the doorway with her right hand pressed against his door, the left holding a file folder. She was wearing a black suit, which Natsu idly thought contrasted her hair very well. Her expression was a solemn one, and judging from the thickness of the folder, it was quite a serious issue. However, in a matter of seconds, her expression twisted into one of irritation as she laid brown eyes on Natsu’s clean desk. Clean as in “without anything on it clean.”

“Agent Dragneel, what are you doing, passing time by lazing around? Do you not have any work to do?”

Natsu forced his expression to relax as he shrugged. “Actually, no I don’t. I already submitted the report for my latest investigation yesterday, and no one assigned me another one, so…”

Erza frowned before striding across the room. “Well then, you are in luck, Dragneel. I have an extremely important mission for you,” she said as she dropped the file folder on his desk. “And a few others. This ought to get your lazy ass out of this office.”

“Hey! I resent that! I am not lazy, and for your information, I was bored to death without something to do.”

Erza adopted a low level glare. “Is that any way to be speaking to your superior officer, _Agent Dragneel?”_

… Whoops. Natsu blinked, realizing his mistake. “Oh crap. I mean – my apologies, Chief Scarlet. Also, I’m a Special Officer."

Erza nodded approvingly. “Yes, yes.” Natsu felt the tension leaving his shoulders. So, he wasn’t going to get clocked over the head. That was good. “Good. Don’t forget, Dragneel, and I will be sure to do the same. Now, as for this mission…” She tapped a finger on the folder. “It’s not exactly very difficult in terms of power, per se; however, it is of the utmost importance.”

Natsu raised a brow. Did that mean he won’t be seeing much action? That certainly sucked. “So basically, I’m gonna go deal with –”

“This is an intelligence gathering mission. You are going to be researching Tartaros, _not_ fighting them. You are _not_ to get into a fight with _any_ of them under _any_ circumstance. Am I understood?”

Natsu held back a groan and nodded. Man, Tartaros! What a mission! Though, it won’t be half as fun without being able to beat some of them up… or destroying something…

“Since this is the strongest underground organization known in Fiore, you are not going alone. You are to bring a few other agents with you. Also understand that since this is an intelligence gathering mission, you are _not_ to cause any destruction or do anything that may attract any sort of attention to you or your team, understood?”

Natsu nodded.

She flipped open the folder and shuffled through a few papers. “This folder contains profiles of known information of all Tartaros members. There is an outline of the mission here as well, and an analysis of all the locations you are to visit and the names of contacts. Read this over carefully and ask if you have any questions.”

“Yeah, yeah. I got it. So, I’ll just bring along a few of my division and we’ll be off then.”

“Not so fast. I have decided that due to the gravity and required delicacy and expertise of this assignment, only the best will go. Not many on your team will qualify, and as such, I have strictly restricted participation. However easy it may sound, this could potentially become quite dangerous.”

Natsu frowned. So this wasn’t going to be as easy as he thought… then again, all he usually did was blow stuff up and beat up the criminals. He’d only been on one espionage mission, and that had ended quite spectacularly in the sense of a lot of explosions and such. And now Erza was sending him on another one? Strange indeed. “So, who else is coming –”

A shadow fell over the door before a tall figure strode in. A pair of narrow dark blue eyes glared from behind locks of unkempt raven hair. The man’s tie was loosened and his dress shirt was halfway undone. One hand was shoved in his pocket while the other gripped a folder much like the one on Natsu’s desk.

Natsu growled and his eyebrows pulled down in an answering glare. He wasn’t angry, not really, but he was being glared at and for no apparent reason! Also, his archenemy – well, more like most annoying and stupid rival – was standing in his office! “Fullbuster.”

Gray stood in the doorway and mentally moaned about his misfortune once again. Yelling behind closed doors in the safety of his office clearly had not been enough. “Dragneel.”

Natsu slowly rose from his chair and slammed a hand on the desk. He levelled an accusing finger at his biggest rival and half shouted at Erza. “WHY the HELL is HE HERE?!”

Erza glared in response and crossed her arms. “Oh, I may have forgotten to mention. Four out of five members have already been decided. Gray is one of them besides yourself. Now, for this mission, you two are to work together, understood?” She turned to glare at Gray as well.

He held her stare before sighing in grudging acceptance. “Fine. Can’t guarantee anything, but I suppose I can try to collaborate with ash for brains if you insist.”

“Oh hell no! No way I’m going to work with the ice princess again! There is no way –” Upon seeing Erza’s glare intensify, he hastily changed directions. “I mean, yeah, why not. Just for this mission.”

Erza smiled in satisfaction. “Great. Another note: remember that you are to address high ranking agents appropriately.”

Natsu glared at Gray a few more seconds before straightening up. “Why don’t you come further in, _Special Officer Fullbuster?”_ Natsu emphasized his rank, paying special attention to make it sound mocking.

“Oh, why thank you, _Special Officer Dragneel.”_

“You’re very welcome, _S.O. Fullbuster_.”

A new voice sounded at the door while Natsu was busy watching every single one of Gray’s movements. “Um… am I interrupting something here?”

A blonde stood in the doorway now as Gray moved his stupidly tall frame away from it. Erza shook her head. “Not at all. In fact, you’re just on time.”

Natsu stared for a moment before grinning in delight, previous anger forgotten. “Lucy!”

Lucy smiled in his direction and waved. “Hey, Natsu!”

Natsu strode around his desk and forward to hug her before turning to Erza. “So, Lucy is the third member? What about the other two?”

She smirked. “I shall be accompanying you as well.”

He stared open mouthed. “Um, okay, so you’re going with us. Okay. I promise to behave, for real. ”

“As for the last member, we shall choose the most suitable. Any suggestions?”

Gray thought for a moment before proposing. “I’d say Gajeel. He’s pretty experienced.”

“Levy,” Lucy said.

“No way, not Gajeel. Dealing with Fullbuster is enough already. I want to bring Wendy.” Natsu felt his choice was the best by far. He liked Levy well enough, but Wendy beat both she and Gajeel by far.

Erza contemplated. “Ideally, I would like to bring Juvia or even Cana. Though, Juvia is on an espionage mission, and Gajeel is accompanying her. Besides, even if he were here, we should not send out another Special Officer. Cana just got back from a mission, so it’s not fair to ask her to join in on this one. Wendy is quite young… Levy seems like a good choice though.”

Natsu snorted. “Yeah, glad Gajeel isn’t here. I still say Wendy. It couldn’t hurt to have another dragon slayer with us; that way, it’s safer to split into groups if we need and search by scent. Besides, I know Wendy, she’s mature, powerful, skilled and not to mention, has some experience. Remember, she joined pretty early. And I know all this stuff because she’s my little sister plus she’s in my division. I’m not a stalker, okay.”

“We know Wendy’s your sister, Natsu. You only talk about her for hours when she comes back from a solo mission, when she beats some guy in a fight or when she gets asked out, about which you needlessly freak out to no end.” Lucy sounded quite exasperated.

Gray snickered. “Mature, unlike you.”

“Sorry Fullbuster, I didn’t quite hear. What was that you said?” Natsu injected the slightest hint of malice in his growl.

“Boys,” Erza interjected, “behave. Now, that said, Natsu does have a point. Levy is in intelligence with Lucy, so it would be a bit redundant to take her with us when Lucy is coming already.”

Natsu really did think they should take Wendy. “Guys, just to add, this will be a very good experience for Wendy. Well, it’s a little dangerous, but not really. Besides, all she’s done is gone on missions that involve beating people up, so… it’s good to have experience in a variety of aspects of intelligence.”

Lucy rolled her eyes. “And why is it that Wendy always goes on such missions, do you think? If you tended towards different ones, then perhaps she would have a little more variety under her belt.”

Erza unfolded her arms and produced another folder out of nowhere and put it on the desk. “Well, then I suppose that’s been decided. I agree with Natsu; bringing Wendy does sound quite logical. That said, we will be leaving at 12 pm. Gather your things quickly and meet me at the train station. Natsu, give Wendy this file and explain the mission to her. Do what you need to do, no fighting, and do _not_ be late.” She levelled a stern look at the two males. “Hear that boys?”

They replied in unison as they whipped an arm up to salute. “Yes Chief!”

“Wonderful. I shall take my leave now.” With that, she turned with a flourish of long red hair and stalked out of Natsu’s office. Gray wandered out as well, muttering about having to work with _Natsu_ of all people. He chose to ignore that. Lucy waved before leaving as well, leaving Natsu standing in his office alone.

He sighed. Well, what a turn of events. From unbelievably boring to this, this being having to work with Gray and Erza as well as taking his little sister along for the ride on a dangerous mission, not to mention spending who knows how long with the woman he didn’t know what to think of. Well, if anything, it ought to be interesting.

He checked the time. 10:28. Better find Wendy and head home. Natsu slipped his phone from his back pocket and dialed Wendy’s number. She picked up immediately, as she always did. “Hey, Wendy, we got a mission. I have your file and according to Erza, we’re supposed meet her at the train station at twelve. You ready to go?”

A word of confirmation later, Natsu snatched up the two files, grabbed his coat and keys and closed his office door behind him. He met Wendy at the stairs leading down to the main lobby (because _goddamn_ those elevators, aka unstable deathtraps on metal wires) and together, they hurried home. There were a lot of things to do before they left.

o.O.o

As it turned out, Natsu really didn’t have much to pack at all. There was his sleeping bag, some money, a couple of extra outfits, and that was about it. He walked out of his room, deposited his suitcase at the front door to their apartment and made his way to Wendy’s room. “Hey, Wendy, you ready to go?” He checked his watch. “It’s… 11:04.”

It appeared that Wendy, on the other hand, was stressing about fitting her things into her suitcase. “No, Natsu, I almost ready, it’s just that I can’t fit this all in here!” She emphasized this by dropping down on her suitcase with her full weight and yanking the zipper sideways, but to no avail. Natsu looked on doubtfully and chuckled.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to squish in there, Wen, but you should be able to save some space by putting your clothes with mine.”

Wendy looked to him with hopeful eyes. “Really? Are you sure?”

“No biggie, though we should hurry, because Erza’ll hit me again if we’re late.”

As Natsu walked out of his sister’s room with her clothes in hand, he wondered what the hell girls packed. It had been a while since he went on a mission with Erza, but he remembered her quirky habit as clear as day. She never failed to show up at the train station with a mountain of luggage in tow. Lucy was a lot better, but she usually had two large suitcases with her. Wendy’s luggage weight changed depending on the mission, but it would appear that she deemed intelligence gathering ones worthy of trying to bring her closet and room.

Not that there was a problem, of course, he thought as he carefully laid out her clothes in his suitcase. Girls got really fussy if their clothes looked anything less than perfect, and though Wendy wouldn’t even think anything of a few wrinkles, his precious sister shouldn’t be walking around in something that implied anything bad about her.

Wendy walked of her room, her one large suitcase looking like it was ready to explode any second. “I’m ready to go, Natsu.”

Natsu took one look at her and promptly exclaimed, “What the hell is that? Is that even a jacket?? Nuh uh, Wendy, no way that’s gonna cut it for winter weather.”

She rolled her eyes. “Relax, Natsu. I’m going to wear my winter coat over this top.” She looked up at him with a touch of worry. “It looks okay, right?”

Natsu grinned. “Oh, okay then. No worries, Wen, you look fantabulous. But if you do happen to need any warming up, just say the word and I’ll light a fire for ya, okay?”

Wendy giggled. “Right. Let’s go?”

“Let’s go.” They tugged on their shoes and were halfway out the door before a loud and insistent meow stopped Natsu in his tracks. He looked back to see his cat staring at him balefully. “Aww man, I knew I was forgetting something. Whoops. Sorry I forgot about you, buddy.”

Wendy almost sighed. Her older brother was so scatterbrained sometimes. “You forgot about Happy again, didn’t you?”

“Hey, Wendy, no laughing! I didn’t see you putting out Carla’s things either,” he said as he walked into the kitchen to take down some cat food and fish. He placed them on the counter before picking his blue cat up and bumped noses with Happy. “Hey, buddy, Wendy and I are going out on a mission, so be good, okay? Have fun being home alone with Carla. Not sure how long we’ll be gone, but you’ll be fine.” Natsu put him down when Happy swiped a paw at his face. “See ya, Happy!”

With that, they set off, down the stairs and towards the train station, both unaware that their door was left unlocked.

o.O.o

As it turned out, they were the first to arrive. Lucy came shortly after with Levy helping carry one suitcase. They chatted a bit before Levy headed back to the office. Then Erza came, pulling along a cart of luggage. Same as ever, though the pile seemed to have diminished a bit. Last was Gray. He was whacked over the head four times; once for being late, once for stripping his shirt off in such a public place (and therefore adding a little more… depth to Fairy Tail’s overall reputation), once for complaining and once for forgetting to address Erza as Chief.

Natsu winced each time, a little bit of sympathy going out to the other male despite their rivalry. Of course, that didn’t stop him from teasing a little. “Lose your shirt again, Fullbuster?”

Gray immediately bristled and glared. “At least I still have my sanity and common sense, which can’t be said for you, Dragneel. “

“Sanity is overrated. Everyone is crazy. And you’re one to talk; it’s not like you have any common sense either, perverted stripper.”

“What was that, flame brain?”

“You heard it, popsicle stick.”

“Are you looking for trouble, fire breath? I’m going to beat your ass into the ground!”

“Bring it, ice princess!”

With that, the two of them lunged towards each other, one snarling and growling as the other scowled. Their fingers curved to reach the other’s hair, their muscles tensed and words poured from their mouths in a torrent of curses and childish nicknames. Their actions, the way they moved as they fought each other, their expressions of immense irritation and ferocity and the gleam of contradicting fondness in their bright eyes were reminiscent of the past.

Lucy sighed. “There they go again. Every single time they’re together. Can’t they just hold it off for a while? At least fight where there is no one to get hurt! Sheesh!”

Wendy watched fondly as the two males engaged in a power struggle, each trying to topple the other and gain an advantage. It didn’t last long though, because Erza appeared bearing thick folders, an envelope of money and no luggage at all.

She was smiling. Even as she wrenched the two battling males apart, her smile stayed. “Now, now, boys, did you already forget your promise?”

They huffed and pulled at their clothes, straightening their ties. Or rather, Natsu did and Gray would have had he not lost his shirt again. “No, Chief.”

“Fantastic. Now, Warren just came by and gave me this.” She held out a folder. “It’s a list of the locations we are to visit. It matters not where we go first, as there are organization members in every city.” She paused before grinning. “So, where shall we go?”

Natsu took the folder and flipped through it. He hummed in approval at the few photos before closing the folder with a snap. “I say Hargeon.”

Erza looked slightly disappointed, but nodded anyway. “Alright then, Hargeon it is.” She ignored the noise of complaint Gray made when she took back the folder, him having not looked at it. “I’ll buy tickets. You all stay here and _no_ fighting. That is an order.”

Natsu watched her go, her red hair swaying and her steps light. “Huh,” he began, “Erza sure looks happy today. She didn’t even yell at Gray and me when she caught us. What’s got her in such a good mood?”

Lucy spoke up. “I would attribute that glint in her eye and the bounce in her steps to this mission. It has been a while since she’s been on the field, which has become especially common since she was promoted. Being Chief of Staff to the active field agents is pretty busy, and does involve a lot of paperwork. I’m sure Erza is quite elated to being able to come on this mission with us four like the old days, even if it is just a low key intelligence gathering one not involving much anticipated action.”

“Right,” Wendy said, “Chief Erza has a fierce love for action and battle, so being stuck inside the Fairy Tail office building must be quite hard, especially since all our reports of missions have to go through her. I’m glad she got clearance from Director Makarov to join us.”

“Hey, what are you all standing around for?? Get on the train already!” Erza walked towards them, waving tickets.

Natsu immediately jumped onto the defensive. “Hey, you were the one that ordered us to stay where we are.”

“Which train?” Gray grumped, redoing his tie after minutes of searching for his shirt.

She waved the other hand flippantly. “Disregard that. We’re boarding the train at platform ten. Let’s go already!”

She started forward at a fast pace, the other four hurrying past people to keep up, dragging their luggage behind them. Natsu protested after he took one of Lucy’s suitcase in addition to his own. “Hey, Erza, wait up!”

She laughed. It was carefree, warm and full of delight. “Nope! Fend for yourselves!” She disappeared through the revolving doors leading to the platform. The four of them dashed after her, smiles on each of their faces. It was nice to be back together again, as a closely knit team like no other. As part of the group of elite agents they once were.

A brief battle at the doors happened between Natsu and Gray to see who would get through to the train first. Soon after, they all disappeared behind the revolving doors as well, off to start the mission with their old team. It was certainly a bit nostalgic, but at the same time, thrilling and familiar. It was reassuring.

No doubt about it, this would turn out to be one of their craziest adventures. Natsu grinned and looked back to see Wendy smiling back, the light of thrumming energy in her eyes. He laughed and sprinted forward. Hargeon was waiting.


End file.
